Solar Energy Harvested From Space Is The Future
Researchers have made progress towards harvesting solar energy in space and transmitting it to Earth. A satellite launched in January successfully beamed power in a microwave to targets in space and even sent some power to a detector on Earth. The California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the experiment's builder, announced this achievement on 1 June. Sanjay Vijendran from the European Space Agency (ESA) said, "No one has done this before. They're demonstrating this capability and bringing credibility to the topic."Space-based solar power has faced the challenge of credibility. To match the power output of a coal or nuclear power station, a satellite would need a vast collection area spanning kilometers, requiring numerous launches and assembly in orbit. NASA attempted a demonstrat...